Paint-A-Thon - Brothers Redevelopment

There’s something special about volunteering for a cause in your own neighborhood that’s larger than yourself.

It gives you a sense of accomplishment, joy, and pride in that you’re working to make your community a better place. That’s how Commerce City employees felt when they volunteered for Brothers Redevelopment’s Paint-A-Thon Program — a service that utilizes volunteers to paint home exteriors for low-income and disabled senior homeowners.

“I think that we specifically feel proud, especially since we’re serving our community members and we’re helping out our neighbors,” said Commerce City Community Relations Liaison Daniela Villarreal, who volunteered for a Paint-A-Thon project in Commerce City this past weekend.

“But then also, I just think it’s awesome. I heard several volunteers reflecting toward the end of the event and seeing all the hard work we did and just how amazing the house looked,” she added. “I think it’s a huge accomplishment for myself and everybody there just to see everything at the end that we were able to do together.”

Commerce City employees, board, commission, and City Council members teamed up on Aug. 28 to paint the exterior of Lettie Miller’s Commerce City house. The city’s Quality Community Foundation — which provides grants to fund nonprofits that benefit Commerce City residents — sponsors the Paint-A-Thon.

Members of city council and boards & commissions recently volunteered their time to help paint a resident’s home as part of the CDBG-funded Paint-A-Thon program from @Bros_Redevelop.

Learn more at https://t.co/2smU0kExaU.

Video en Español: https://t.co/E4PzLKvLOB pic.twitter.com/z8MKibb4Sg

— Commerce City, CO (@CommerceCityCO) September 3, 2021

So far this year, Brothers has completed more than 75 Paint-A-Thon projects throughout the metro area and in Colorado Springs.

“I thank God every day that there are people like this who can help people like me who can’t do the job anymore. It wouldn’t get painted otherwise, I couldn’t do it,” said Miller. “The program they have is just amazing, absolutely amazing. It is a God send.”

Throughout his life, Brothers Redevelopment Founder Don Schierling spent many summers driving around the metro area ensuring that Paint-A-Thon projects were going smoothly.

So, it was only right that a day ahead of his memorial service — an event that was delayed five months after his death because of the pandemic — that his family and friends volunteered for their own Paint-A-Thon project.

Dressed in purple Paint-A-Thon shirts to honor Alzheimer’s victims like Schierling and his wife Elvira, Schierling’s loved ones gathered for a day of service to paint the exterior of Dorothy Jokumnsen’s Westminster home and to do yard work in July. The project was one of 84 houses the Paint-A-Thon Program has painted as of Sept. 16.

“Don and Elvira’s legacy of service was alive and well during our Paint-A-Thon project. You could feel them smiling from above as we worked together painting and sprucing up the yard,” said Evon Holiday, a family friend of the Schierling’s. “It was such a fitting way to celebrate their lives and Don’s dedication to Brothers Redevelopment.”

Schierling passed away in February at the age of 86, 50 years after him, Richard Magnus, Joe Giron and Manny Martinez established Brothers Redevelopment. He spent more than 40 years serving as a board member for the organization and was recognized for model Christian stewardship through the 2020 National Journey Award presented by faith based financial services organization Everence.

Outside of his work serving the region’s low-income residents and seniors through Brothers, Schierling taught at Regis University Business School, built houses in areas of Germany that were impacted by World War II and held a role with International Development Enterprises — a nonprofit that encourages self-sufficiency in Africa, Asia and Central America.

The Schierling family also donated a wheelchair lift to Brothers earlier this summer that was used by Schierling and Elvira. The item will be donated to a client in need and installed for them at no charge by Brothers’ Home Modification and Repair Program.

“It felt good, and it felt right to do the Paint-A-Thon in memory of mom and dad,” said Sonja Schierling, the daughter of Schierling and Elvira. “Giving back to others is who they were and what they taught all of those who knew them. It was a perfect way to honor them, especially the weekend of their celebration of life.”

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Barbara Rodriguez knew she couldn’t afford to pay for her Denver house to be updated with a new paint job.

The 93-year-old’s income comes from Social Security. She also suffers from severe osteoporosis — a disease that causes bones to become weak and brittle — and has spinal problems that makes it difficult for her to stand straight.

Rodriguez has struggled to maintain her home since her husband passed away, she said. Her house hadn’t been painted in 10 years, and the paint was discolored and chipping.

But after getting in touch with Brothers Redevelopment’s Paint-A-Thon Program, Rodriguez finally received the home improvements she had long dreamed for. In June, volunteers transformed her home by spending hot summer days painting and updating the house with fresh blue paint.

“I walked out, looked back and just wept because it was so beautiful,” Rodriguez said about the first time she saw her newly painted house. “I had no idea it would be so beautiful. It’s quite a difference. I just loved it.”

Earlier this summer, volunteers from our Paint-A-Thon Program painted the exterior of 93-year-old Barbara Rodriguez’s house.

Volunteers caught her reaction when she first saw the updated home improvements. These reactions are priceless and warm our hearts.

Check it out! pic.twitter.com/uHgH9jON5B

— Brothers Redevelopment (@Bros_Redevelop) August 6, 2021

The Paint-A-Thon Program has assisted thousands of clients like Rodriguez over its 43-year history. The program operates throughout the metro area/Colorado Springs and involves volunteers painting the exterior of low-income or disabled seniors’ homes for free.

Rodriguez said the volunteers who painted her house were enthusiastic and cheerful. And because of those reasons, it made her Paint-A-Thon experience that much more meaningful to her.

“You can’t say enough about how grateful I am and how blessed I felt. There aren’t enough words,” Rodriguez said. “These (volunteers) just kept right at it and worked tirelessly.”

Qualifying residents can apply for the program by calling 720-339-5864 or by emailing chad@brothersredevelopment.org. Paint-A-Thon clients must be 60 years or older and/or have a disability, must own and reside in the Denver metro area and plan to live in their home for at least 12 months.

Life hasn’t necessarily been easy for 72-year-old Linda Marquez the past four years.

The Lakewood resident lost her son Marcus in 2017 after he passed away due to a long battle with a brain tumor — leaving behind his now three-year-old son Atticus. Atticus’s mother wanted him to stay with Marquez because of complicated issues, and when she was faced with the challenge to raise her grandson, Marquez stood up.

For the past four years, Marquez has raised Atticus alone and plans to continue doing so until she is no longer physically able to. She said he is a friendly, smart boy who recently finished his first year of preschool.

“My Atticus is my life saver, because if I didn’t have him, I would be alone. He keeps me moving,” said Marquez. “I decided when my son died, I wouldn’t let anybody take him away from me. I can’t do my yard work or paint my beautiful house now — but I can take care of him day by day.”

Thanks to Brothers Redevelopment’s Paint-A-Thon Program — a free service where volunteers paint the outside of homes for low-income and disabled seniors — Marquez doesn’t have to worry about painting her house anymore.

Paint-A-Thon volunteers from Pinkard Construction, a construction company based in Lakewood, were at Marquez’s house on June 11 to update it with a new paint job that she has long dreamed for.

“It looks beautiful,” said Marquez, who noted that she never liked the color of her house before until it was recently painted. “It looks lighter, cleaner, and I don’t have all those chips and spots anymore. I’m grateful because I don’t know how I would’ve ever done this.”

2021 marks the second year Pinkard Construction has volunteered for the Paint-A-Thon. Christine Fuentes, a Pinkard Construction employee who volunteered to paint Marquez’s house, said the company gives its employees three paid days to volunteer for different causes.

“What’s nice about working with Brothers is they make it easy for the company because they provide all the information, they communicate with you, they help you decide what project would be good for the number of volunteers you have, they provide the material — everything that needs to be done to do a project like this. It makes it easy for us to promote it to our employees and to get the job done,” said Fuentes. “It’s kind of a turn the key thing.

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*CDOT awarded Brothers a $2 million grant to preserve the historic GES neighborhood amid Interstate-70 expansion

**Brothers’ Home Modification and Repair is fixing what’s broken!

***Paint-A-Thon volunteers making a difference here!

DENVER, April 25 — Alongside the disruption of construction and the tangles of traffic with I-70’s overhaul, good things are also happening for residents in Globeville Elyria-Swansea, as nonprofit Brothers Redevelopment Inc. works to preserve and stabilize their neighborhoods.

Beginning in mid-March and building momentum this April, Brothers has begun protecting and prettifying GES homes with its volunteer-powered Paint-A-Thon exterior makeovers and its Home Modification and Repair pros.

This Saturday, April 27, the Peña home at 4975 Steele Street in Denver gets a shiny coat of paint from a Paint-A-Thon volunteer team made up of alumni from the University of Central Florida. Mr. Peña has been a real team player, and we’re grateful to him for helping us get the word out that Brothers is on the ground to help out homeowners in this distinctive historical neighborhood.

Richard and Mary Ellen Pena have lived in their GES neighborhood their whole lives. They love their home, yard, garden and neighbors. Richard worked in the trades his entire life until a serious back injury disabled him.

Between blizzards in March, Brothers harnessed the power of students on spring break to paint the Montoya home in a GES Paint-A-Thon. We have another GES project already on the books for May 18 with 25 volunteers leaving the bench and bar for a Saturday Paint-A-Thon. When not sprucing up homes, this volunteer crew, the Rhone Brackett Inn of Court, promotes ethics, skills and professionalism in the legal field.

Brothers invested almost $10,000 to make over a bathroom for Mrs. Medina, a senior resident with a long history in this neighborhood. And, elsewhere in the area, HMR is hard at work improving overall conditions and safety in the basement of another elderly neighbor’s home.

This is just the start for Brothers. We are planning more projects, tapping the $2 million grant that the Colorado Department of Transportation awarded us to help prevent displacement of GES residents.

Brothers is part of the GES Affordable Housing Collaborative, a partnering with community members in the GES Coalition and the Colorado Community Land Trust (CCLT).

The generous $2 million CDOT grant awarded Brothers is for mitigation of impacts due to the expansion of Interstate 70 through the neighborhoods. It enables the collaborative to acquire single-family homes for placement in the neighborhood land trust, by which residents may own their dwellings and even resell them, while the land itself remains in trust for the community.
The partners will set aside an estimated $300,000 to rehabilitate houses and preserve the hard-earned equity of existing homeowners.
Other portions of the grant will be applied toward new construction/redevelopment of parcels/properties that also will provide affordable housing for dozens of families in the neighborhood.

Commerce City volunteers for Paint-A-Thon Program

Schierling family volunteers for Paint-A-Thon in honor of Brothers Redevelopment founder

Paint-A-Thon client brought to tears after seeing freshly painted home

Paint-A-Thon leaves its mark in Lakewood

Nonprofit Brothers Redevelopment’s crews at work on the ground in GES